@MaddawgMadsen I love the injury question. They can cause serious derailments, anger, frustration - all that and a bag of chips, a few beers, and then depression because of weight gain.

They don't have to. It is sometimes almost impossible to find workarounds, but the search for them is crazy helpful. I'm the oldest person in here, so I have certainly gone through a few injuries, and learned along the way. I have not had a truly incapacitating one yet, but still needed to figure out how to be this new imperfect me Sorry for how long this message is, but I'm getting old, so it's OK, right?

As a performing musician with hours of practice to do every week since childhood, repetitive stress and bad use were always on the radar, and this helped build up some useful contacts to prevent and minimise. Osteopath (for me far more effective than chiropractor), physiotherapist or trainer depending on the stage of injury, and careful monitoring of movement habits helped a lot. Luckily, fellow musicians are generous about calling you on the bad stuff you're doing! Annoying, but good. Ugh. But these habits did not prevent me from having some bad eating habits and rather minimal strength building practices.

Injuries are what helped me get into a more intentional use of exercise. After a rather nasty hip and then knee injury, I learned a lot, had good physio, and then finally (after the knee) started working with a trainer who also got me paying attention to weight and diet in a more effective way. During the almost year I could not put weight on a bent right knee, I rode horseback without stirrups in a bareback pad, I worked my upper body hard for the first time ever, and gradually the trainer helped me get my strength back in that leg. Now that knee is my favourite canary! If I slack on my lower body strength work, it hurts. So does the hip. I started losing weight during that year, and it has stayed off 11 years now.

More recently, I had a bad fall in April 2020 that resulted in a very large hematoma on my left buttock. It was not terribly painful once the initial stage passed, there was no break or tear of anything. But I could not sit on that buttock for what turned out to be a year until I had surgery to remove the encapsulated hematoma. Then 8 weeks with a drain, and finally I could start to straighten my lower spine out again. There had been no horseback riding or anything sitting possible during that year, so at least I took the time to do plenty of walking, snowshoeing, and exercises that did not put me on my butt. I felt like I dealt with it well and never stopped finding ways to keep strong and moving as much as possible. It took a long time to rebuild the hip flexibility and strength on that side, and to straighten my tailbone back out, but now it seems OK and my trainer has helped tons with the "finishing" work. I have a huge scar and all, but function is as good as it's going to get. Now I'm working on foot stuff, nasty nerve pain on the top of my foot, so new solutions are being sought!

Injuries are going to happen, most likely. Coping with them, finding ways to stay healthy with reduced or changed mobility - that's our big task through that. I look forward to hearing how you have dealt with this!

Any injury that causes less exercise has to be accompanied by less eating, sad to say. And good nutrition! Kick that whiner begging for junk to the curb!

Beware!
There have been a lot of scammy friend requests going around - do not respond to anyone using the name of Stephen J. Townsend with a military photograph. I got one, thought it was legit, but the messages were just to say hi and had nothing to do with MFP. I Googled the name and this popped right up:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-the-bizarre-romance-scams-using-army-gen-stephen-j-townsends-identit

Time for the last of the November weigh-ins! I know it isn't really November anymore, but for F2F purposes, December isn't until Sunday

@strong_fit_ells
@conleywoods
@micki48
@wishfuljune
@Pearl4686
@leni1us
@CupcakeCrusoe
@zankash23
@veronica1359
@LalasCrazyWorld (if you want to update your starting weight)

Thanks!

@YinxFed Can I order one? I want you to make one for me, and I'm not usually a wreath person! It's beautiful. I hope you enjoy the cold snap

micki48 wrote: »

I know I have been MIA. Or maybe MII ( missing in inaction).

Will try and catch up on posts soon. I’m considering going to support for December. I know it will be more of what it’s been. My mind is busy elsewhere. I did get a new Pilates mat hoping it will entice me.

MII - that is a good one. But we know you are there, and we love hearing from you even if it is briefly and not as often as we would like. Let me know if you want to go on support for the month, but don't disappear even if you do, ok?

Jasper and I had a wonderful ride today - set up more poles to trot over, and his favourite mare (ridden by my friend) was there too. Nowhere near as boring as usual! And we both had someone to learn from. Later, I picked up the crampons for his hoof boots, so soon we will be able to get back out on the roads and trails even if it is icy.

Wishing you all the best weekend!